Documentarian’s death puts poignant note on Wexner film series

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Details : Next in the series will
be A Night in 67 (2010), by Ricardo Calil and Renato Terra, which examines Brazilian music and
politics though an American Idol-style TV show that was popular during the 1960s.

In 2011, Chris Stults began curating a Brazilian documentary series for the Wexner Center for
the Arts.

The more he immersed himself into the project, the more he was moved by the works of
documentarian Eduardo Coutinho, whose films Stults called “the guiding spirit” of “Cruzamentos —
Contemporary Brazilian Documentary,” the series continuing at the Wex.

The series, which began last month, has taken on new meaning.

On Feb. 2, Stults was stunned to learn that Coutinho had been killed. According to news reports,
Coutinho, 80, and his wife, Maria, 62, were stabbed by his son, Daniel, 41, who then tried to kill
himself. Coutinho died; his wife and son were hospitalized.

“It was completely unexpected,” said Stults, associate curator of film/video at the Wexner
Center.

Only moments later, Stults heard that American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman had died.

“I found out about the two within three minutes of each other, and it felt cataclysmic, like the
world had been turned upside down.”

Three of Coutinho’s films are scheduled to anchor the series:
The End and the Beginning on March 21;
Twenty Years Later, which is considered his masterpiece, on March 27; and
Playing, on April 3.

The series and the exhibit “Cruzamentos — Contemporary Art in Brazil” in the Wexner Center
gallery are part of “Via Brasil,” an examination of the nation’s art and culture.

At first, Stults didn’t know much about Brazilian cinema outside of a few chestnuts.

“I had no idea what was going on,” he said. “There’s been some interesting fiction films here or
there, but they seemed isolated, almost like anomalies.”

Jennifer Lange, film/video program curator at the Wexner Center who assembled the art exhibit,
kept hearing about Coutinho during early meetings about the project.

“In our early work, everybody was taking about ‘Coutinho, Coutinho, Coutinho,’” she said. “He
was obviously one of the most important filmmakers in Brazil.”

Stults and Lange decided to visit Brazil to gather information. Stults flew to the South
American nation three times — Lange four times — to meet with artists, writers and filmmakers and
to visit archives and galleries.

The trips were eye-opening.

“The documentary there has this rich, amazing tradition,” he said. “They’ve never been shown in
America. That’s what I knew I had to do.

And the works by Coutinho were arresting.

“Everybody we talked to spoke of his significance. Watching his films, it was confirmed he was
this remarkably unique figure in cinema,” Stults said. “Just the approach he takes in his film
mirrors the process that we took in developing the Brazilian programs at the Wexner Center.”

Coutinho had been invited to appear at the Wexner Center during a symposium about Brazilian art,
but the frail 80-year-old had declined.

“He kept hearing all the stories about the winters here,” Stults said with a laugh. “The
Brazilians didn’t think it got that cold where people lived.”

Coutinho’s death adds a poignant note to the film series.

“He needs to be considered one of the most significant documentary filmmakers recently working,”
Stults said. “It was going to be a pleasure to introduce his work to a new audience. It seems even
more urgent and vital to be doing this now, after his murder.”